The Karnataka Police Cup, run over a distance of 1600 metres, attracted a field of eleven top class participants in Bangalore on Saturday. The race was expected to be a close fight between two top class milers, Vanquish and Talk Of The Devil. The former stood out in the paddock and it was apparent that the Byramji ward had been tuned to perfection. While money flowed in the direction of Vanquish, the odds against the other runners began to expand. Although the above mentioned horses finished one-two, the expected tussle did not take place as Vanquish put daylight between himself and Talk Of The Devil.

Wayne Smith pushed Padmanabhan's Crocodile Hunter into the early lead and showed the way to Vanquish and Renascent ,while the rest of the runners were totally outpaced in the early stages of the race.Talk Of The Devil, after receiving a couple of checks, was seen racing at the rear end of the field. The front runner who was tackling a mile for the first time, started to shorten his strides and was fluently overtaken by Vanquish and Renascent. Suraj Narredu asked Vanquish to quicken by tapping him a couple of times and the response was immediate. He lengthened his strides and strode away from the rest. Talk Of The Devil came with a long stretch run to peg back Renascent into third place. Trainer Byramji had always maintained that Vanquish was a top class horse, but was amazed at his inability to win more than once in his career. Racing pundits and old timers were surprised that a winner of one race was being fancied in a class I event. Today's emphatic victory confirmed that Vanquish belongs to this class and that he will be a
formidable force in the long distance races during the season.

Pesi Shroff's Kiara arrived in Bangalore with a tremendous reputation of being an outstanding sprinter. The Bangalore Handicapper rated this filly very high and accordingly put her in class II. She was a raging hot favourite against a bunch of horses who had earlier won in this class. Although her victory was never in doubt, what surprised many was the effortless ease with which it was achieved. Christopher Alford was happy to settle Kiara in third place as Lush Foliage and Script Ure Destiny made the early running. He produced her in the centre of the track as they straightened for home, and pushed her hands-and-heels thereafter. Kiara cantered away from the rest and was finally eased up to win by 15 lengths from Strong Minded and a tiring Script Ure Destiny.This victory confirmed her position amongst the top sprinters in the country.

A class III race over seven furlongs attracted a field of well performed three year olds. This included four runners from Hyderabad who had won eight races between them at that centre. It was expected to be a match race between Padmanabhan's Equidae and Ganapathy's Star Of Washington. Both these contenders had made their maiden appearance on the race track a winning one during winter, and were reported to be working well in the morning track trials. Equidae was slammed with the bookmakers and was sent to the post as an even money favourite. The price against Star Of Washington drifted to 4/1. The favourite started to play up at the start and reared up in the gates after being stalled. The officials were alert and Equidae was pulled out of the stalls. A routine examination was enough to convince them, and Equidae was declared a non-starter. Srinath settled Star Of Washington into third place as Iaepetus and Valid Expectation made the front running and brought the field into view. He released the brakes near the distance post and was a mute spectator thereafter as Star Of Washington sped away from the field to win by a widening ten lengths ahead of Dorabella and Valid Expectation.

Jockey Wayne Smith has come to India with a good reputation and a solid performance in the recently concluded racing season at Dubai. It was generally accepted that Wayne Smith was astride some pretty mediocre horses in the first couple of days of the season, and therefore could not display his capabilities. Racegoers were waiting to see his riding on Equidae before forming any opinions about him. They shall have to wait a little longer.

The opening event of the day was the second division of a race for maiden three year olds. A very ordinary lot of youngsters were seen parading in the paddock. Lokanath's Opprimo was backed down to on-money favouritism. This bandaged horse was seen struggling to overtake the front running Gris Rapide, when Sharat Kumar trained Cute Style came on the wide outside and sped away from the two of the. It was subsequently learnt that a neat gamble had been landed on the winner. The upper division was won by the Byramji trainee Lotus Leaf. Harish did not have to do much on this filly except to guide her to a start to finish victory. The best of the rest were Competent Soldier, Perfect Analysis and Act Of Duty. The last named came from way off the pace and should not be missed while racing in similar company.

Prakash ridden Queens Guest was another impressive winner in the day's card.This filly from Mumbai was always travelling the best of the lot, and had to be only pulled out to go away from the early leader Spark Of Isis. Second favourite Hill Of Grace was found flatfooted as she stopped in the straight and was easily passed by Strategic Partner to take the third spot. This victory enabled Ganapathy to achieve a double and share the day's professional honours with veteran Byramji.